Broadway Revisited
(01/26/10):
10-05;
January 30, 2010
Show tunes recorded just for radio.
Gypsy overture-- 1; fades under)
Hi, this is Art Hilgart and this is Broadway Revisited, a weekly exploration of the songs and shows, composers and lyricists, and performers who created the American musical theater.
(Music up, then fade)
Today we'll spend an hour with Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby and twenty-five classic Broadway songs. We have time for all these because they are taken from recordings taped only to be played on the radio. The Lee songs are from the mid-'forties-- transcriptions on sixteen inch discs sold only to radio stations; and the Crosby numbers are from those he recorded in marathon sessions to be mixed and matched on his prerecorded mid-'fifties CBS radio program. We'll start with some Harold Arlen.
1. I've Got The World On A String (Hindsight) / Between The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea 4:35
The lyrics on both of those Harold Arlen songs were supplied by Ted Koehler. Here are Bing and Peggy with a pair of "sky" songs.
2. Blue Skies / New Sun In The Sky 3:43
Irving Berlin wrote Blue Skies, and New Sun in the Sky is by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz. On a few of today's records Peggy Lee is backed by a big band, but on the rest she's accompanied by a quartet led by her husband, guitarist Dave Barbour, featuring pianist Buddy Cole, and by coincidence, all of the Crosby numbers are with the Buddy Cole Quartet. Here's Bing with two of Fats Waller's show tunes.
3. Ain't Misbehavin' / Honeysuckle Rose 4:37
Fats Waller and Andy Razaf wrote Ain't Misbehavin' for the Broadway show Hot Chocolates, and they wrote Honeysuckle Rose for the revue Load of Coal.
Here's Peggy Lee with two songs by Walter Donaldson.
4. You're Driving Me Crazy / You (Gee but You're Wonderful) (Hindsight) 4:21
Adele Astaire introduced Walter Donaldson's You're Driving Me Crazy on Broadway in Smiles, and his You (Gee but You're Wonderful) was the big production number in the film The Great Ziegfeld.
Now we'll hear three Gershwin songs, beginning with a Lee and Crosby artificial duet on 'S Wonderful.
5. 'S Wonderful / 'S Wonderful / Somebody Loves Me / I Got Rhythm 8:12
Buddy Cole augmented his quartet for that last number. All three songs had George Gershwin's music. Buddy DeSylva wrote the lyrics for Somebody Loves Me, and Ira Gershwin supplied the others.
Here are two Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein songs from Show Boat.
6. Can't Help Lovin' That Man / Ol' Man River 4:20
Bing Crosby returned to his hot take on Ol' Man River, first recorded in 1927 when Show Boat opened.
Now we'll have two more Oscar Hammerstein lyrics, these with Richard Rodgers music.
7. Oh, What A Beautiful Morning (Hindsight) / Keep It Gay 4:33
Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote Oh, What A Beautiful Morning for Oklahoma; Keep it Gay was in their Me and Juliet.
And now we'll have more of Rodgers' music, but these have Larry Hart's lyrics.
8. You Took Advantage Of Me / This Can't Be Love 4:46
We'll follow those songs from Rodgers & Hart shows with some Harry Warren numbers that were revived on Broadway in 42nd Street.
9. Lullaby Of Broadway / We're In The Money (The Golddiggers' Song) 4:24
Al Dubin wrote the words to those Harry Warren songs. Both were written for the old Warner Brothers Dick Powell & Ruby Keeler movies. Now Crosby and Lee sing a pair of songs by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh.
10. I Can't Give You Anything But Love / I Feel A Song Comin' On 3:28
We'll wind up this hour of songs recorded just for radio by Peggy Lee and Bing Crosby with four by Cole Porter.
11. You're The Top / You Do Something To Me / Do I Love You? (Hindsight) / Ridin' High (Hindsight) 6:55
Nearly all of the Peggy Lee recordings you've heard here are from a five-disc Mosaic Records set of songs transcribed by her in the 1940s for radio play, and all of the Crosby numbers are just a few of those in his seven-disc Mosaic box of songs he recorded to use in his fifteen-minute CBS radio program in the mid-fifties.
(Gypsy overture-- 2; to end)
Join us again next week for another Broadway Revisited. National distribution is funded by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and it's produced with our engineer, Martin Klemm, in the WMUK studios of Western Michigan University. Our website with playlists, program schedules, and stuff is broadwayrevisited.com, and our e-mail address is Art@broadwayrevisited.com. And I'm Art Hilgart.
Total music: 53:54; Estimated talking: 4:13; Intro/outro: :30; Estimated total: 58:37
Promo: (12): This week on Broadway
Revisited we'll hear Bing Crosby and Peggy Lee sing two
dozen Broadway standards from recordings made just for radio. Bing and
Peggy on the air this
week on Broadway Revisited.